Gregory Wallace: Obamacare is turning out like Prohibition, and can share its fate

Obamacare is "the law of the land," as we are told constantly. It can be repealed just as the Volstead act (Prohibition) was killed in its entirety. Prohibition was once the law of the land until the public found out just what kind of legislation it really was. Both Prohibition and Obamacare were ill-conceived and largely driven by misplaced high ideals that do not work when made into law.

Nancy Pelosi said of Obamacare, "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what's in it." She already knew what was in the bill and she ignored anything to the negative because it got in the way of her agenda. A lot of people did. The consequences be damned. The Volstead Act was passed by large majorities in Congress and was ratified by a majority of states. Obamacare, on the other hand, squeaked by with the narrowest of margins, with lots of pork used to entice legislators to pass the bill.

The Volstead Act passed into law after years of consideration and hearings. Yet it was still able to be repealed after the public saw the very real consequences of passing such a huge, all-encompassing bill. Activists who had testified on behalf of the act later admitted it was an unmitigated failure that actually caused more harm than good. That was after only five years of struggling to make the faulty Prohibition legislation work. Sound familiar?

How do you boil a frog? Very slowly. Obamacare is being instituted slowly, piece by piece. The latest "roll out" for signing up for Obamacare has failed miserably and will continue to do so. Ironically, it has failed even though most of the people they had expected to flock to it never showed up. It is obvious that none of this has been thought through to a conclusion and now we are "finding out what is in the bill."

The only way to fix this is to repeal it, entirely. Only then can we start over carefully, little piece by little piece. A good first start would be to open up health care to the free market. You could purchase your health insurance from an insurer in any state. Competion would drive the cost down, just like it does in any market. No one would be laid off or have their hours restricted because of it. Employment levels would rise over night.

Albert Einstein said, "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them."

Unfortunately for all of us we must wait for the next election cycle to hold all of our legislators accountable. For they are not our leaders, they are our servants. They need to be reminded of that fact, apparently.

Don't lose heart. When Prohibition was passed in the House and Senate, it went to President Wodrow Wilson, who vetoed the bill. That caused Congress to over-ride Wilson's veto. We can do the same in the reverse with Obamacare.

We must prepare NOW for the mid-term elections in 2014 and the presidential election in 2016.

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Gregory Wallace of Effingham is a registered independent who owns and operates H&S Medical in Portsmouth.